Mannerisms

It started when NXP was bought by a consortium of private equity firms led by Wall Street's KKR. Soon after, NXP was pulled out of Crolles2, Europe's leading source of microelectronics process technology.

That wrecked Crolles 2, as Freescale and STMicroelectronics then followed suit in abandoning European-based leading-edge development of core microelectronics technology.

Last month, KKR pushed the divestment of NXP's wireless chip operation into a joint venture with ST in which ST holds an 80 per cent stake.

Now, KKR has connived with Infineon's supervisory board to oust Infineon's CEO amid rumours that Infineon will create, and sell to KKR, enough new shares to make KKR the biggest shareholder in Infineon, after which NXP will be sold to Infineon.

Following that, it is thought, Infineon's wireless activity, the fourth largest in the world, will be sold to the NXP-ST wireless joint venture.

Well thank you, Uncle Sam. Ain't that fine n' dandy? Except that most of us didn't want to see Europe's biggest three chip companies, all of them in the world top ten, chopped about and redistributed at the behest of some clever theorists in a Manhattan skyscraper.

These shenanigans will create some fees for the Wall Street-ers, and some pay-offs for some Munich guys, but its effect on Europe's capability as a chip-making region will be abysmal.

What will those German car-makers think about Infineon's commitment to long-term R&D on projects which are key to them, now that Infineon is to be controlled by Wall Strreet?

Furthermore, for  25 years, from the Megaproject, through JESSI, MEDEA and now CATRENE, the European public authorities, working with Europe's universities and research institutes, have collaborated in a sustained effort to achieve, then retain, a first-class microelectronics capability.

Now that the returns from that capability will flow to the pockets of a few Wall Street-ers, will that effort be sustained for much longer?

TOMORROW: TEN BIGGEST WIRELESS CHIP SUPPLIERS